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South Koreans’ direct purchases from foreign countries edged up in the second quarter of this year, with online purchases of Korean products by overseas shoppers nearly doubling, government data showed Wednesday.
Koreans’ direct purchases of foreign goods via overseas online shopping malls reached 411.8 billion won ($369.3 million) during the April-June period, up 5 percent from 392 billion won a year ago, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.
At the same time, internet-based direct sales made by overseas shoppers [...]

Annual sales of a diabetes drug manufactured by LG Life Sciences Ltd., the pharmaceuticals unit of South Korea’s LG Group, are likely to exceed 50 billion won ($44.9 million) this year, the drug firm said Wednesday.
It would mark the first time for the annual sales of a single homegrown drug to breach the 50 billion-won mark.
The combined sales of Zemiglo , which was approved as the nation’s 19th new drug in 2012, and its composite drug Zemimet came to [...]

A group of South Korea’s leading start-ups announced Wednesday that they would join forces to invigorate the online-to-off-line sector, in which many, if not all, are bleeding cash due largely to high marketing costs.
Representatives of five start-ups — SOCAR, Yogiyo, Yanolja, Mesh Korea, and Spoqa — said they would form the O2O Alliance, seeking collaboration among the rising firms in the Korean start-up scene.
“Many start-ups seek M&A opportunities involving big companies with deep pockets. That could be a good [...]

Exports of Korea-made cosmetics more than tripled over the past five years as the Korean Wave, or Hallyu, fueled robust demand from China and other Asian countries, customs data showed Tuesday.
Outbound shipments of makeup products reached US$2.45 billion in 2015, surging 53.1 percent from $1.56 billion a year earlier, according to the data by Korea Customs Service (KCS).
The 2015 figure soared more than threefold from $698 million in 2011, with an annual average growth of 36.9 percent over the [...]

Fridges are not just for storing food anymore. They now have features that allow consumers to order groceries online, watch TV shows and listen to music.
Samsung Electronics released Wednesday a top-of-the-line refrigerator, called Family Hub, which has features that include voice control, screen mirroring and digital payment for online shopping.
Its right door sports a whopping 21.5-inch full HD touch screen, which is larger than the screen of a laptop or desktop PC. The versatile refrigerator is not just a [...]

LG Electronics on Monday launched its ultra-luxury appliance brand, LG Signature, in Korea before its planned debut in the U.S. and Europe.
Combining the best design and functions, the Korean tech giant showed confidence in raising the standards in the soaring premium home appliance market.
“With LG Signature, we will continue our upscale push,” LG president and appliance chief Cho Seong-jin said at a launching event in Seoul.
LG owns several brands such as Dios for refrigerators, Tromm for washing machines and [...]

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest TV maker, said Tuesday it plans to launch a total of 14 SUHD TV models this year, renewing its commitment to liquid-crystal display in the premium TV market.
Amid fierce competition with Chinese rivals, Samsung has poured resources to produce more lucrative high-end TVs, including the latest ones that use quantum dot technology.
“Following the first launch last year, we have applied the second-generation quantum dot technology this year that has upgraded overall picture quality,” said [...]

Despite her busy schedule, Kim Na-eun, a 30-year-old office worker in Seoul, visits a skin care clinic every now and then, whenever she feels the need to rejuvenate, or give some “proper attention” to her skin.
These days, though, her visits have stopped — not because she has stopped investing in skin care, but because she now relies on a set of at-home beauty care devices instead.
Ranging from a rechargeable sonic skin cleansing brush to a microcurrent-generating facial massage roller, [...]

The issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) in South Korea nearly doubled in 2015 from a year earlier on the back of sharp growth in sales of government-led mortgage funds, the financial watchdog said Wednesday.
A combined 83 trillion won ($68.1 billion) worth of ABS were issued last year, up 99.8 percent from the previous year’s 41.5 trillion won according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
ABSs are derived from underlying assets such as auto loans, home loans, credit card receivables and student [...]

South Korea’s housing market continued its upside mode in the fourth quarter of last year on the back of a government-led stimulus and low borrowing costs, a report showed Wednesday.
Home prices in the country rose an average of 4.4 percent on-year in the October-December period, up from a 4.1 percent on-year gain in the previous quarter, according to a report compiled by the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI).
Seasonally adjusted home prices edged up 0.9 percent from three months earlier.
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